He knew the rest of his team was close by, but they would leave him alone unless something came up.

Lonely at the top, Ben thought, sipping the strong coffee.

He remembered when the Rebels were first formed; he knew the names of every member of the small band, of Constitutionalists-the proper name for the Rebels-who had set out to form their own government, based on the constitution of the United States and the writings of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. But of that original bunch, only a small handful remained. Most were dead. And those that remained, like Ben, were middle-aged.

Ben smiled in the gloom of the tent, remembering the women he'd known over the years. He had several children, but of them all, only BuddyRaines, his oldest son, showed any interest in command leadership. The others were fine kids, bright and good-looking and outgoing, but not interested in assuming any leadership role ... at least not yet.

Ben doubted they ever would, for their mothers kept them as far away from Ben as possible. Ben seldom saw his kids, and doubted he would know them if they walked into the mess tent.

But if that was the way their mothers wanted it, that was fine with Ben.

34.He had wars to fight and a country to resettle.

He looked up as Anna strolled into the tent, his Husky, Smoot, on a leash. The adopted Anna was closer to him than any of his blood children, with the exception of Buddy.

Ben thought of his first Husky, Juno, whom he had found (or the Husky had found him, rather) down south, just after the Great War, and who had lived to be an old dog. Juno had died fighting government soldiers who had invaded the original Tri-States, up in the Northwest.

"Good fight, hey, General Ben?" Anna asked, sitting down beside him.

"Have you ever been in a bad fight, Anna?" Ben questioned.

"Only the ones when I was on the losing side back in the old country."

"I suppose that would spoil your day," Ben muttered. Anna lived to fight. Ben suspected strongly that in a couple of years, she would be requesting permission to move over to Buddy's special operations battalion. She had already been through jump training, and even Dan Gray, the former British SAS officer, admitted there was little he could teach the young woman about guerrilla warfare and the art of silent killing. Anna was a natural soldier.

"So we move into the big city tomorrow, hey?" Anna asked.

"What's left of it."

"Good," she replied, flashing a smile. "That means we get to kill creeps close up. See you, General Ben! I'll take Smoot back to the motor home."

She was gone into the night.

Ben toyed with his coffee mug for a moment. He had never seen anyone who hated the Night People any more than Anna did. He supposed she had good reason to do so. Back in Europe, the creeps had chased Anna and her 35.35.small band of young fighters for years, toward the end even offering a reward for her head.

Ben sat for a time, finishing his coffee, thinking, Anna has no business being here. She needs to be back at Base Camp One, attending college, having fun and seeing boys her own age. But whenever he brought that up, she fixed him with those cold pale eyes and shook her head."More coffee, general?" one of the cooks quietly asked, standing by the long table with a coffee pot.

Ben looked up and smiled in the gloom. "No thanks. I've had plenty." He stood up. "I'll see you in a few hours."

Ben walked slowly back to his motor home. The flares were still popping, filling the night with light. The crack of the sniper rifles was less frequent now. In another 30 minutes or so, the mortar crews would stand down and the night would quiet.

Shifting through the rubble of Pittsburgh would not take long, for if the creeps ran true to form, they would be exiting the ruins now, the women and children moving out first, the adult male survivors the last ones to leave. Only a few volunteers would remain behind, to harass the Rebels. When the Rebels pulled out of the rubble, they would leave behind them a dead city.

Ben slowed his step and cut his eyes. His team was a dozen or so yards behind; never far away. They would not rest until he was secure.

In his motor home, Ben cleaned the old Thompson and put it away. "Maybe it's time to put it away for good," he muttered. "Bring an end to an era."

But he knew he wouldn't do that. Not yet.

He took his cut-down M-16 out of a closet and cleaned the CAR, then filled an ammo pouch with full .223 magazines. In the distance, the artillery barrage against the city that lay to the east raged. It would continue all night. At 36.William W. Johnstone dawn, Buddy's special ops battalion would seize the airport and make it ready to receive planes.

Ben showered and hit the sack. Smoot jumped up on the bed and curled up at Ben's side. Within minutes Ben was asleep. As usual, he dreamed of Jerre.

37 Three Ben started hammering at the ruins of Pittsburgh from the west, north, and south. He deliberately left the east side open for a time, in hopes the women would take the small kids and bug out. The sight of dead babies was not something any Rebel enjoyed viewing.

The P-51Es would come in after the artillery stood down for a time, and drop napalm. Soon the ruins were blazing, sending black smoke spiraling high into the blue sky, while the main body of the Rebels stood back a few miles and watched and waited for their turn. Their turn would come the next morning, and that's when it would get down and dirty-grunt work, digging the nasties out of the stinking lairs, sometimes sealing the tunnels and basements closed, sometimes pumping tear or pepper gas into the openings, driving them out, then shooting them when they surfaced.

Within an hour after entering the rubble, the Rebels' clothing would be filthy with soot and ash and stinking from the odor of dead creeps. Andalthough none of them 38.ever expressed their feelings to Ben, it had gotten back to him on more than one occasion that many of the Rebels putting their lives on the line day after day wondered if the civilian population around the country really appreciated what they were doing.

"About half of them," Ben muttered. "Maybe."

The Rebels moved into the still-smoking rubble just as dawn split the eastern sky. This time they found only a few hard-core creeps waiting for them, but that did not lessen the hard and dirty and dangerous job of digging them out Joined by other battalions, it took a full week to declare the ruins of Pittsburgh a dead area.

Five Batt moved north, up into New York state, 6 Batt stayed just north of Ben, in Pennsylvania, and Ben took his 1 Batt straight east, toward Altoona and College Station, while battalions 2 and 11 worked south of Ben, but always moving east. Buddy's 8 Batt stayed loose, ready to move in any direction.

Ben saw no signs of life until they were about fifty miles east of the smoking ruins of the city. In a small town on Highway 22, the Rebels encountered their first militia group since entering the state.

Ben relaxed when he saw that the group was racially mixed. Just before the Great War, some militia groups had aligned themselves with hate groups, and Ben wanted nothing to do with those hard-liners. But this group had members of all races within its ranks. Ben unassed himself from the big wagon and stood for a moment, gazing at the men and women who were staring back in him.

"Are you really Ben Raines?" A woman finally broke the silence.

"I am."

"My God, general. Are we glad to see you. We're just about out of everything-holding on with our teeth."

"Are you the commander of this group?"

39.39.She laughed easily and openly and Ben liked her immediately. "No, sir.

That would be Sonny Kauffman. He's east of here checking out a report of a gang of thugs working the area. He'll be back later on this afternoon.

I'm Sally Markham. Tell the truth, we can't offer you folks much, but we've had the water system working for some time and it's cold and as pure as it was before the Great War."

"Sounds good," Ben said, stepping forward and extending his hand.

"When's the last time you folks had a doctor check you out?"

"Several years, general."

Ben turned to Corrie. She was already on the horn, telling the MASH unitbehind them to set up and the medics to get ready to go to work.

"Nearest airport of any size, Sally?"

"Johnstown, sir. But that town is filled with punks and other assorted assholes. They moved in about six months ago. Maybe ... three or four hundred of them. They control what is left of the town."

Ben smiled. "They won't for long." He turned to Corrie. "Six and 12 Batts stay here and assist these people. Let's go kick some punk ass."

Ben had ordered Ike and Greenwalt's 2 and 11 Batts to come up from the south, with Ike swinging around and blocking any escape to the west. Ben took his 1 Batt and drove down from the north.

Before the Great War, Johnstown had a population of about 50,000 and had been a pleasant little city. It was anything but pleasant now.

Just for kicks, Ben ordered several squadrons of P-51Es to do fly-bys over the town, flying very close to the deck.

40.When the souped up P-51Es came screaming in, the pilots laughingly reported punks running in all directions.

Ben, Ike, and Greenwalt were in position by late that afternoon, with several hours of daylight left.

"Communications says they're using CBs, boss," Corrie told Ben. "Channel 19.".

"Naturally," Ben said. "All right." He held out a hand and Beth put a CB walkie talkie in it, set to 19. Ben keyed the mic. "You assholes in the town, are you receiving me?"

After a few seconds, a voice popped out of the speaker. "Who you callin'

an asshole, you asshole?"

Ben smiled. "This is going to get old in a hurry, but what the hell?

Let's have some fun."

Beth rolled her eyes.

"I'm calling you an asshole, you asshole."

"Who are you?"

Ben chuckled. "I know who I am. Who are you?"

Corrie bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"Huh?"

"I said, who are you, asshole?"

"Big John Parkens, that's who."

"I never heard of you. Are you sure that's who you are?"Jersey sighed.

"Huh?"

"Boss," Cooper said. "That ain't no mental giantyou're talking with."

"He was probably spanked as a child and that traumatized him deeply."

"I'm sure that was it," Cooper replied.

"John Prickins. Are you listening?"

"Parkens, goddamnit. Parkens!"

"That's what I said, Barkens. This is Ben Raines."

There was a very long silence from Bigjohn. "So what?" he finally asked.

But there was a definite note of worry in his voice.

41.' 'You and your scummy crew have been terrorizing the few good people left in that town, Fartkins. Take your gang and clear out."

"And if we don't?"

' 'We comeinandclear you out. Take a good look around you, big mouth.

You have Rebel battalions just waiting to come in and kick your ass."

After about three minutes of silence, the gang leader said, "There ain't no troops to the east."

"How observant of you. That is correct. Does that give you a clue, Barfins?"

"Parkens, goddamnit. Parkens!"

"Whatever."

"Ah ... I guess maybe you want me and the boys to pull out in that direction?"

"By George, I think he's got it," Ben said to his team. "Yes. Of if you choose, you can remain in town and we'll kill you. The choice is yours to make."

"You'll ... kiU us?"

"That's what I said."

"Who the hellfire do you think you are, Raines?"

"I know who I am, Arkins. The commanding general of the largest army known to exist on the face of the earth. You really want to tangle with us?"

"Not really, general."

"Then start moving out toward the east and keep going. When you reach a very large body of water, that will be the Atlantic Ocean. Once there, you either change your ways and become a law-abiding citizen, or you can make a stand and fight us. If you choose the former, you have a goodchance of living a long life. If you choose the latter, we'll bury you.

Do you understand all that?"

"I understand."

"Move! Now!"

"Yes, sir. Big John out."

42."Scouts have him pinpointed, boss," Corrie said. "He's standing with some people on the roof of a tall building. Snipers say it's an easy shot if you want them to take it."

"Negative. If he'll leave peacefully, so much the better. That will give them all ample time to see what they're up against and quite possibly change their ways."